By Ruma Paul July 6, 2026 A drone view of Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, April 17, 2026. Credit: Reuters, Sam Jahan, File Photo DHAKA, July 6 (Reuters) - At least ​eight Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, were killed and several others injured early on ‌Monday after heavy monsoon rains triggered multiple landslides at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said. More than 1.2 million Rohingya live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a 2017 military crackdown in neighbouring Buddhist-majority Myanmar, ​where they are accused of being outsiders. Most families live in makeshift shelters made of bamboo and ​plastic sheets on steep, deforested hillsides that are highly vulnerable to landslides during the ⁠annual monsoon season. FLED PERSECUTION, LOST FAMILY TO LANDSLIDE The landslides hit four locations across the camps, burying shelters under ​mud and debris while residents were asleep. A Bangladeshi man was killed and two family members were injured ​when part of a hillside collapsed onto their house in Cox's Bazar, police said. “We were asleep when the landslide struck," said Ali Ahmed, who lost three family members when their bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelter was buried in the disaster. “Fire Service personnel and neighbours ​rescued us, but my mother, father and younger brother did not survive." “We fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape ​persecution. Now I've lost my family here too, and I don't know what lies ahead for me.” Continued rainfall had increased ‌the ⁠risk of further landslides, with thousands of refugees still living on unstable slopes, said Tumpa Das, a police official in Cox’s Bazar. “Every time heavy rain begins, fear spreads through the camps,” said Rohingya refugee Mohammed Taher. “Thousands live in bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters on unstable hillsides, where even a minor landslide can become a deadly disaster.” Authorities have already ​relocated at least 1,000 ​Rohingya refugees from landslide-prone ⁠areas to safer places and plan to move several thousand more in phases, officials said. “Awareness campaigns are also under way across the camps to reduce the risk ​of further casualties,” said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee relief and repatriation commissioner. Renewed ​fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine ⁠State has raised concern of a fresh influx of Rohingya refugees across the border. Bangladeshi authorities have stepped up monitoring along the frontier amid reports of people gathering near the border seeking to enter the country. The Bangladesh Meteorological ⁠Department ​has forecast more heavy rain in the coming days, prompting authorities ​to remain on alert for additional landslides and flash floods. Landslides and flooding are common during the monsoon season in the refugee camps, often ​killing people and damaging homes, roads and other facilities. Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Kate Mayberry, William Maclean © 2026 Reuters. All rights reserved

By Al Jazeera Staff July 7, 2026 A father comforts his son injured by pellet gunshots in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, August 18, 2016. Credit: Al Jazeera, Cathal McNaughton, Reuters Feroz Aslam* sports an abashed smile whenever he hears the clink of a teacup on a saucer. He cannot see, but he knows it is his father. “For the past 10 years, it has been my parents – ailing themselves – who have been serving me food,” the 28-year-old told Al Jazeera. “Being their eldest son, it embarrasses me extremely.” Aslam was not born blind. He lost his vision a decade ago when, while running an errand to a fruit shop in Sopore, a town in Indian-administered Kashmir, he was hit by a rushing stream of shotgun pellets fired by Indian security forces during an antigovernment protest. Aslam remembers falling onto the ground as the hot projectiles seared into his skin. “Seven pellets went into my right eye and six into the left,” he said, adding, “and more than 300 hit my chest.” Upon being fired, pellet guns release hundreds of tiny iron balls that tear into the flesh and stay buried deep inside the tissues, from where it is nearly impossible to remove them. The pellets burned through Aslam’s cornea – the glazed coating that protects the eye’s sensitive parts – impairing his vision forever. ‘Blood-soaked eyes’ Aslam is among more than 1,000 Kashmiris who have lost their vision, partially or completely, since New Delhi introduced pellet guns in 2010 to quell street protests in the disputed Muslim-majority region, controlled by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. Now, teasers of a Bollywood film, scheduled for an October 2027 release, have reopened those wounds in Kashmir. Chauhaan features actor Ajay Devgn playing an Indian security official, who is arrayed against hundreds of stone-throwing protesters in Kashmir amid burning cars and pitched street battles. Devgn’s voice in the background appears to mock the past Indian governments for having “pandered to the enemy” by refusing to be tougher on the protesters. It laments the alleged ineffectiveness of security measures deployed by Indian forces. A mask to stay safe during a tear gas attack can be bought online, it says, while a pellet gun only inflicts “limited damage”. The trailer of the “action entertainer” ends with Devgn, wearing a skull mask and walking towards a protesting crowd with a wheeled boombox blaring “Jumma chumma de de” – a popular film song from the 1990s, in which a lover is demanding his betrothed to meet him on a Friday so they can kiss. Most street protests against India’s rule in Kashmir used to take place on Fridays. Aslam cannot watch Chauhaan’s teaser, but he calls the upcoming film unfortunate. “If the makers blindfold their eyes only for a day, they would know what it feels like not being able to see,” he told Al Jazeera. India’s use of pellet guns in Kashmir crescendoed in 2016 when huge rallies were held during protests against the killing of Burhan Wani, a 22-year-old rebel commander of the regional armed group Hizbul Mujahideen. Wani was shot dead along with two other rebels on July 8, 2016, by Indian security forces and police in Anantnag district’s Bundoora village, about 85km (53 miles) from the region’s main city of Srinagar. Wani’s killing threw the valley into weeks of mourning and angry protests, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people and the blinding of hundreds of others, including women and children, some as young as 18 months. Or, 14-year-old Insha Mushtaq, whose face was so badly disfigured by the pellets that it took plastic surgeons weeks to stitch it back together. Rubina, mother of Irshad, a 15-year-old Kashmiri boy who was injured by pellets fired by Indian security forces, shows his x-ray, Srinagar, September 20, 2019. Credit: Al Jazeera, Danish Siddiqui, Reuters An estimated 14 percent of Kashmir’s pellet victims are children below the age of 15. Saiba Varma, a medical anthropologist at the University of California San Diego whose work focuses on Kashmir, argues that Chauhaan’s political messaging signals how Indian public discourse has grown “increasingly pernicious as well as less heedful of the questions of morality surrounding the police excesses” in Kashmir. “When pellet guns were first introduced as a crowd control measure, the state justified them as a more humanitarian, less lethal alternative to bullets. The use of pellet guns was meant to shore up the state as a humanitarian actor,” she told Al Jazeera. “But now those narratives appear to have fallen away. The state no longer even needs these justifications.” Varma said the depictions of Kashmiri pellet victims in the film’s trailer were laced with popular political tropes about the Kashmiri people. “The images of men with blood-soaked eyes voicing animalistic screams reinforce the tropes of Kashmiris as dangerous figures that require taming,” she said. ‘Bleeding through my eyes’ India’s use of pellet guns in Kashmir has attracted widespread condemnation from rights groups and even the United Nations, which accused India of “grave violations” against children. “I call upon the government to take preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets against children, ensuring that children are not associated in any way with security forces, and endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report in 2021. In 2016, when the use of pellet guns by Indian forces was at its peak, the Supreme Court of India cautioned against their “indiscriminate” use, arguing that they must be deployed sparingly and after “proper application of mind” by the authorities. But the Indian government defended their use as a nonlethal alternative to bullets. A decade later, however, Aslam still experiences agonising pain in his eyes “to the point that I sometimes wish I were dead instead”. Unable to work, he says he finds it difficult to come to terms with the fact that his ageing father still works as a tailor to support the family. Nearly 40km (25 miles) from his house lives Masroor Khalid*, another man blinded by pellets in 2016. At his home in Budgam district, Khalid caresses a photograph of himself from his younger days. It shows a man in his late teens, his arms beefed up with muscles, staring into the camera, a smile flickering across his face. Men with pellet injuries being treated at a house in Kashmir after clashes with security forces over the Indian government scrapping the region’s special status, August 14, 2019. Credit: Al Jazeera, Danish Ismail, Reuters Khalid was 20 when he was hit by shotgun pellets while distributing the sacrificial meat during the Eid al-Adha festivities. “When I turned a corner, there was a stampede,” he recounted to Al Jazeera. “I don’t remember anything except that I was bleeding through my eyes. Later, I fell into a coma for four days.” His parents spent 2 million rupees ($21,000) on his surgeries, but Khalid’s vision could not be restored. He still has more than 300 pellets lodged in his face. “Doctors told me removing the pellets would mean getting 9-10 stitches. That would mean disfiguring my face entirely,” he said. In the process of his expensive treatment, Khalid’s family was reduced to penury. “My father has aged, but he still works as a mason so that the family doesn’t end up starving,” he said as he broke down. “We wouldn’t even wish upon our enemies what has befallen us.” ‘Mocking the victims’ Political analysts say Chauhaan is the latest Bollywood act of “pouring scorn” on the pellet victims in Kashmir. “Ever since [Narendra] Modi took over as Indian prime minister in 2014, hate itself has become a commodity and many Bollywood directors have latched on to it,” Rakib Hameed Naik, who heads the United States-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), told Al Jazeera. “They know such movies will sell and they will also get patronage,” he said. “So it’s effectively a business model. Feeling qualms over mocking the victims is the least of their concerns.” For years now, a section of filmmakers in Bollywood has been accused of churning out a flurry of propaganda films that feed into the policies and programmes promoted by Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Such films target India’s 200 million Muslims by using sensitive issues, including Kashmir and India’s historic rivalry with neighbouring Muslim-majority Pakistan. In 2019, Modi’s nationalist government revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status and split the region into two federally governed territories. The deeply unpopular move was implemented through a months-long military lockdown and internet shutdown, while hundreds of Kashmiris were imprisoned. Since then, said Naik, Bollywood has produced a series of films – Article 370, Baramulla and Kashmir Files – to rationalise the government’s moves, using familiar Islamophobic tropes and reducing Kashmiri Muslims to caricatures. He said such movies are made to justify the BJP’s policies. “It can brush aside criticisms of abysmal human rights record and invert the reality, projecting the regime as the victim and the Kashmiri people as aggressors,” Naik said. Ather Zia, a Kashmiri political anthropologist and poet, said Bollywood has historically treated Kashmir “either as a silent backdrop for its own stories, or Kashmiris are objectified as black-and-white caricatures”. “They are shown as either perpetually servile hosts for tourists or as raging mindless terrorists,” Zia told Al Jazeera. “Infantilising, patronising, invisibilising and weaponising Kashmiris is a dependable formula for many blockbusters. This also reflects the audiences who continue to consume such content voraciously and remain chronically insensitive to Kashmiris, their history, politics and suffering,” she said. *Names of pellet victims have been changed on their request. © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

June 24, 2026 Aimee Gabay Firefighters from the Chico Mendes Institute work to contain a forest fire and prevent it from reaching Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Brazil’s northern Goiás state in 2025. Image by AP Photo / Eraldo Peres. In 2025, fires were responsible for a significant spike in forest loss in three territories in Brazil that are home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, according to Global Forest Watch data analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous leaders from the Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados Indigenous territories, told Mongabay that fire is a growing threat to their way of life and the isolated Indigenous people who share the same lands. It affects their productive practices and destroys the biodiversity and vegetation they depend on for hunting and gathering, thereby leading to food insecurity. Damage to health, such as respiratory problems caused by the smoke, is another impact frequently mentioned by sources Mongabay spoke to. “The communities suffer from health problems caused by the smoke, difficulties in mobility, and food insecurity because several planting areas are affected,” Almir Narayamoga Suruí, a Paiter Suruí Indigenous community member from the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory that straddles the Amazonian states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso, told Mongabay via WhatsApp. “Culturally, the impact is also very strong because the forest for us is not just a natural resource; it is part of our spirituality, our history, and our identity. When an area of the forest is destroyed, we also lose part of our memory and the traditional knowledge transmitted by our ancestors.” Mongabay looked at forest loss and its dominant drivers across territories in Brazil with recognized isolated Indigenous peoples, using Global Forest Watch (GFW) drivers data that rely on a model with a 90.5% accuracy rate. Three territories stood out. Firefighters from the Chico Mendes Institute work to contain a forest fire and prevent it from reaching Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Brazil’s northern Goiás state in 2025. Image by AP Photo / Eraldo Peres. Smoke rises as fires spread through the Brasilia National Forest, Brazil, in the middle of the 2024 dry season. Image by AP Photo / Eraldo Peres. The 530,525-hectare (1.31-million-acre) Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory, which straddles the states of Maranhão and Pará, saw a dramatic increase in forest loss in 2025 from the previous year. GFW data show the area lost 27,243 hectares (67,319 acres) of tree cover in 2025, of which nearly all, or about 93%, was caused by fire. Most of this loss was in primary forests. Itahu Ka’apor, a Ka’apor leader of the Tuxa Ta Pame community inside the territory, told Mongabay that fires in 2025 caused serious damage to forests. “Many game animals died,” he said via WhatsApp. “Vines and straw that we use to build our houses were also affected.” Ka’apor added that fires pose an even greater threat to the isolated Indigenous people who live within Alto Turiaçu, known as the Isolados do Igarapé Jararaca people. This is because they depend fully on fish and game, including large rodents like pacas and agoutis, to survive. Madalena Borges, Maranhão state coordinator for the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), a Catholic Church-affiliated group that advocates for Indigenous rights, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that her organization had received reports of accidents as a result of fires. In Alto Turiaçu, for instance, a 15-year-old Ka’apor youth suffered severe burns on his feet, Borges said. The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Territory, which covers some 1.87 million hectares (4.61 million acres) in Rondônia state, is home to several Indigenous people from different tribes, such as the Japaú, Amondawa, Oro Towati (Oro Win), and Cabixi, as well as an estimated four distinct groups of isolated, uncontacted Indigenous people. Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau also saw a huge spike in forest loss in 2025 compared to the previous year, amounting to 19,639 hectares (48,529 acres). Fire was the dominant driver, responsible for 97% of that total loss last year. Like in Alto Turiaçu, most of this loss was in primary forests. (Left) A Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria) that perished in a wildfire in the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory, which straddles the states of Maranhão and Pará and saw a dramatic increase in forest loss in 2025. (Right) Many animal species were burned in wildfires in the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory in 2025, including tortoises and monkeys which Indigenous Ka’apor communities depend on for food. Images by Itahu Ka’apor. Ivaneide “Neidinha” Bandeira Cardozo, an inhabitant of Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau and coordinator of the Kanindé Ethno-environmental Defense Association, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that they suffered similar impacts to the Indigenous people in Alto Turiaçu. She cited animal deaths and respiratory illnesses, especially in babies and the elderly. She said fire usually means that an area within the territory is being illegally occupied, which puts all their lives in danger. “By killing the forest, the advancing fire kills the [isolated] peoples’ food supply, burns their huts and puts them in fear of being burned alive,” she said. “Besides, they certainly suffer from respiratory diseases that can lead to death. It also signifies the advance of land grabbing, and thus the loss of Indigenous territory.” There are also social impacts, as community members are forced to put out fires and seek medical treatment for affected family members, rather than organizing their communities. Fires also have a similar impact on culture, Neidinha said, as cultural activities and the transfer of knowledge between elders and youths are often severely disrupted when fires hit. Ritual sites, which are also important for the education of younger community members, have also been destroyed. “Important areas for wildlife preservation and an entire natural pharmacy are lost, because with the death of trees and animals, knowledge of remedies and the climate balance that keeps everything alive dies,” Neidinha added. A similar trend was seen in the 982,324-hectare (2.43-million-acre) Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados Indigenous Territory in the state of Mato Grosso. GFW data show the area lost 23,618 hectares (58,361 acres) of forest in 2025; 99.7% of this was lost to fire, nearly all of it primary forest. Fires across the Brazilian Amazon Other territories across the Brazilian Amazon were also affected by fires in 2025, with records of social, cultural and environmental impacts similar to those described in Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados. Almir Suruí said that a fire in 2025 destroyed vegetation and animals across his community’s ancestral land, endangering villages and Indigenous families. “What struck me most was the desperation of the communities trying to protect their homes and the forest with few resources,” he said. “I was also deeply affected by seeing animals fleeing the fire and sacred areas being affected. Many warriors and leaders mobilized day and night to fight the fires and protect the territory.” As El Niño conditions develop in the tropical Pacific, experts warn that the climate phenomenon may lead to warmer temperatures and drier conditions across the Amazon Basin, making it more prone to fires. “This will not only increase the incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases due to the emission of fine particulates, but also release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, generating a feedback [loop] that amplifies Earth’s warming,” Florencia Sangermano, an associate professor at the School of Climate, Environment, and Society at Clark University in the U.S., told Mongabay by email. Firefighters work to put out a blaze in the Amazon forest during a drought and high temperatures in the rural municipality of Careiro Castanho, Amazonas state, Brazil. Image by AP Photo / Edmar Barros. The Tuxa Ta Pame community, located within the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory, after a wildfire in 2025. Image by Itahu Ka’apor. The upcoming El Niño is predicted to grow into a “very strong” event, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, even more than the one in 2023-2024 that led to record-breaking fires. To mitigate the worst effects, said Sangermano, there’s a need to protect forests and reduce deforestation, as this will allow for the recirculation of moisture and filtering of particulate matter, therefore reducing the incidence of fire-related diseases. © 2026 Copyright Conservation news. Mongabay is a U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform.

By: Kristie Moore The Mothers’ Tears Monument located in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. The inscription is written in Kyrgyz, English, and Russian, but not Uzbek. Source: Kristie Moore (author) Kyrgyzstan has navigated a difficult path since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. While working to develop an economically and politically robust society, Kyrgyzstan has attempted to construct a Kyrgyz identity. A significant remnant of the Soviet Union is the presence of non-demarcated borders, ethnic enclaves, and large minority populations located outside their titular homelands. This includes the large ethnic Uzbek population in southern Kyrgyzstan, concentrated in cities like Osh, Jalalabad, and Uzgen, communities which lived with Kyrgys in relative peace for years. During the Soviet era, small-scale violence continued, and mass violence broke out in the early 1990s. During this period, national borders became internationalized, and instability created interethnic rivalries. Violent outbreaks in 1990 and 2010 resulted in the destruction of Uzbek properties and forced relocation, impacting many survivors. The lack of justice and accountability for the violence has created a tense interethnic situation today. Recent moves by the Kyrgyz government to demolish Uzbek neighborhoods have exacerbated these tensions, reopening wounds that never healed. This report will examine the legacy of violence against Uzbek communities in southern Kyrgyzstan as well as modern attempts to further destroy and relocate their communities. It will argue that Kyrgyzstan must act to protect Uzbek communities, promote better interethnic relations, and resolve past community-based trauma. Read the full report here:

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have initiated a year-long process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, a move human rights defenders say will leave victims of war crimes without access to justice. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, as seen on 22 September, 2025. REUTERS - Piroschka Van De Wouw In a statement published on Wednesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed that Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger had initiated the one-year process of withdrawing from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC. The West African countries, which are all led by military juntas following a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, first announced their withdrawal from the ICC last September, calling it "a tool of neocolonial repression". The three nations, now linked in an alliance named the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), accused the court, based in The Hague, of lacking impartiality and politicising human rights issues. Niger officially left the ICC on 18 June and Burkina Faso and Mali followed on 24 June, by notifying the United Nations – which facilitated the Rome Statute – of their respective decisions. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres acknowledged their departure on 30 June. The ICC has invited the three countries to remain and to engage in dialogue with the institution. AES states still liable The ICC is the world's permanent war crimes tribunal, which prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression when national courts are unwilling or unable to act. A statement from the ICC said the move risked weakening global efforts to end impunity and undermining the pursuit of justice. It urged the three countries to remain committed to the statute. The statement also said the decision to withdraw does not release a state from obligations incurred while it was still a party to the treaty. Julien Antouly, a lecturer in international law and specialist on the Sahel region, told RFI that the withdrawal "does not fundamentally change the situation from a legal standpoint", as the court can still prosecute the countries in the coming year. It also still has the right to investigate complaints already received. The ICC has been working on a case open in Mali since 2012, for instance. Victims 'denied justice' According to Amnesty International, the move "consecrates impunity and threatens to deny victims of war crimes justice and reparations". Marceau Sivieude, the NGO's regional director for West and Central Africa, said in a statement that this decision "threatens to deny thousands of victims the possibility of truth, justice and reparations." Amnesty has documented crimes under international law committed against civilians during conflicts in each of the three countries, and says many of these could fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC. All three are fighting Islamist insurgencies that have seized large areas of territory and stepped up attacks on military targets this year. Rights groups have accused militants as well as the armed forces of Burkina Faso and Mali of possible abuses. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also published a statement saying the Sahel countries’ withdrawal from the ICC "betrays victims". "The African Union and all ICC member countries should publicly and privately urge Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to remain part of the global community’s fight against impunity and to reverse their decisions to withdraw from the ICC," said HRW's International Justice Counsel, Tamara Aburamadan. The notifications of withdrawals can still be reversed, as seen in Gambia and, most recently, Hungary.

Constitution Review Commission chairman Sevuloni Valenitabua greets Alefina Vuki, Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commissioner and her staff at Level 9 Suvavou House in Suva on Tuesday. File Photo: Jonacani Lalakobau Fiji’s constitutional protections for indigenous land are nothing more than an illusion, masking systemic human rights violations and colonial-era greed. That is the submission to the Constitution Review Commission yesterday from the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (FHRADC), which has fiercely condemned the 2013 Constitution for stripping away vital safeguards and leaving traditional landowners exposed. FHRADC representative Alefina Vuki pointed out to the review panel that while Section 28 claims to prohibit the alienation of indigenous land, Section 27 completely dismantles that promise. “Land rights and the protection of it may be an illusion,” Ms Vuki said. She said Section 27 gives the State broad powers for the compulsory acquisition of land for national development, creating a fundamental tension with indigenous ownership. “While section 28 on its face appears to provide strong protection, section 27 weakens it by allowing land to be taken by the state, giving rise to a fundamental tension between indigenous ownership rights and the state’s authority to override it.” Ms Vuki said that under the previous 1997 Constitution, laws protecting indigenous affairs could not be altered without strict consensus mechanisms. However, the 2013 framework stripped away these safeguards, meaning a simple parliamentary majority can now amend or repeal crucial legislation, like the iTaukei Lands Act 1905, without any community consultation. Ms Vuki said this directly violated Fiji’s international obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ILO Convention 169, which mandate Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). “The removal of these entrenched safeguards has important practical consequences,” she said. “Laws affecting indigenous land and affairs… can now be amended or repealed by a simple majority in parliament. This can occur without meaningful consultation with indigenous communities.” The commission has strongly recommended re-inserting the 1997 Constitution’s entrenched safeguard clauses, adapted to the current single-house parliament.

By Justin Salhani Displaced Lebanese face a void as war annihilates the physical and emotional anchors of their past and identity. Civilians stand outside their homes destroyed in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, in February 2025 [Raghed Waked/Al Jazeera] Beirut, Lebanon – In February 2025, Ali stood outside his house in Naqoura, in southern Lebanon, and pointed at the crack in the foundation and fruit trees pulled up by the Israeli military. The Israeli military had recently withdrawn from the town as part of a ceasefire agreement, but had left behind detonated homes, a graffiti-laden school, and power lines pulled out of the ground. Ali, an elderly man from the town, said at the time that he would fix it all. But a little more than a year later, Israel has completely razed the area of Naqoura, one of many towns and villages in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military has made completely uninhabitable. Forced to flee when the Israelis invaded again in March, Ali has traded his garden and family home by the sea for a room on a rooftop in the heart of Beirut. Sipping coffee, he lamented. “We had 20 good years,” he said, roughly referring to the period between the end of the 2000 Israeli occupation and the start of hostilities on October 8, 2023. For thousands of people like Ali, who are from towns or villages now razed to the ground, the future is unclear. The pain of having lost their homes is devastating, but experts expect an even greater psychological burden should these people eventually return to their villages. “When a village is flattened, and even the landmarks around it are gone, people lose more than their homes. They lose the markers that told them where they belonged, and that’s part of why we’re seeing such deep distress, including in people who have never struggled with their mental health before,” Basma Alloush of the International Rescue Committee told Al Jazeera. “For many, it’s losing the physical traces of childhood, the tree they grew up near, the street they played in, the home that held a lifetime of memories, with no way to find or confirm any of it was ever there,” she added. “That kind of grief has nowhere to land, because the past itself feels erased along with the place that held it.” Villages razed On March 2, Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for a second time in less than two years. It responded to Hezbollah firing rockets – the first such attack against Israel by the group in more than a year – by re-invading southern Lebanon and striking targets all across the country. Since then, Israel has killed 4,257 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 12,000 more. More than 1.2 million people were displaced at the peak of Israel’s attacks. Some of those people have gone home, but thousands remain displaced because their villages are occupied or because their homes were destroyed. Israel currently occupies approximately 6 percent of Lebanese territory and a recent agreement signed between Tel Aviv and Beirut seems to indicate that Israeli troops will not be abandoning their positions anytime soon. Human rights groups like Amnesty International were already calling Israel’s destruction in southern Lebanon “extensive” after Israel’s 2024 destruction. But following the 2026 offensive, a UNDP assessment found that 11,095 buildings were completely destroyed. Satellite analysis conducted by the French publication Le Monde also found that since March 2026, 45 percent of urban areas in southern Lebanon have been damaged or destroyed. Among those areas are towns like Bint Jbeil, Kfar Kila, Meiss el-Jabal, Taybeh, Deir Siryan and Ali’s home town of Naqoura. The level of destruction is so severe that it can be hard for residents to determine where their homes are in relation to the rest of the town. Davide Musardo, a clinical psychologist with Doctors Without Borders – known by its French initials MSF, who spent time in Gaza, said that residents from the devastated strip often lost “reference points” to where their homes were. Musardo said that many of his patients who tried to return to their homes in Gaza after the ceasefire there told him that they “didn’t recognise where they were because everything was destroyed” and ended up feeling lost. Losing a sense of self Many in Lebanon are suffering psychologically from the recent Israeli war. But even before Israel’s war on Lebanon, the country’s population was suffering from a mental health crisis. A study conducted in 2022 by Lebanese researchers found high rates of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Lebanese have suffered deeply in recent years, with a 2019 uprising and crackdown followed by a banking and economic crisis, the 2020 port explosion, and now almost three years of war. Some of these crises have also compounded, as in the example of one young man who was wounded in the port explosion in 2020 and had the apartment below his mother’s home hit by an Israeli strike less than six years later. Children have also been deeply affected psychologically by the latest conflicts. A teenager recently told AJ Plus that a part of her “has been destroyed” after her home in Tyre, southern Lebanon, was destroyed. Many of the Israeli tactics of destroying towns in Lebanon were also used in Gaza. And now for Lebanese, having their homes destroyed extends “far beyond material loss”, according to Aya Mhanna, a mental health and psychosocial support and trauma specialist. “When a village is destroyed, people are not simply losing their homes; they are losing a place that has silently organised their identity, relationships, routines, memories, and sense of belonging for years, sometimes generations,” she said. “People don’t just grieve buildings; they grieve what those places represented and made possible. The loss is not only of what existed, but also of what can no longer exist,” Mhanna added. The importance of rebuilding Dr Joseph El-Khoury, a consultant psychiatrist and conflict medicine expert, told Al Jazeera that the home’s importance is very symbolic. “It’s the place where everybody feels safe and, also particularly in villages, the connection goes back generations and generations, so it’s about your history and your identity being erased and not just bricks and mortar,” El-Khoury said. He added that the loss of such an integral part to a person’s identity can lead to demotivation and nihilism. “It’s very important that the rebuilding starts as soon as possible, but also that it even tries to improve on what was there before.” Currently, Israel occupies large swaths of southern Lebanon. The most intense fighting seems to have ceased, but Israeli officials indicate that people like Ali will not be allowed home in the coming weeks. And even if they are able to return home in the near future, they will be returning home to devastated landscapes where the needed infrastructure – roads, water systems, electrical grids – have also been devastated. “There might be an opportunity to rebuild properly with an even better ecosystem, but this requires a state, urban planning and peace,” El-Khoury said. Without that, he added, the people of south Lebanon’s destroyed villages “will not be able to heal.” © 2026 Al Jazeera Media Network

By Cassandra Vinograd and Marc Santora July 2, 2026 The site of a Russian attack on Kyiv on Thursday. (Credit: Alina Smutko/Reuters) The Russian military blasted Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with waves of ballistic missiles and drones that lasted into Thursday morning, a deadly show of force after weeks of Ukrainian attacks in Russia that have heaped pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin. At least 27 people were killed and 85 injured in overnight attacks, Ukrainian officials said, as firefighters raced to extinguish blazes in districts across the city. Several apartment buildings were partially destroyed and an unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble, according to the local authorities. The barrage was the latest in the deadliest spring for civilians in Ukraine since the opening months of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, with the violence increasing as both sides have raced to develop new weapons. Russia has been bombarding Ukrainian towns and cities throughout the war, but Ukraine is increasingly able to bring the war further into Russia. It is using its growing arsenal of domestically produced long-range drones and cruise missiles to attack fuel facilities and military installations deep inside the country. And it is systematically hitting targets in every corner of occupied Ukraine, including Crimea, a peninsula controlled by Russia. Kyiv’s growing reach has caused logistical struggles for the Russian military and has led to widespread fuel shortages across the country, eroding Mr. Putin’s ability to insulate large parts of Russia, including Moscow, the capital, from the war. But it does not seem to have dented his resolve to continue fighting. After initially staying silent on Ukraine’s ratcheting up of attacks, Mr. Putin told Russian state television on Sunday that the assaults on critical infrastructure were “obviously creating problems” and “certain shortages,” though he said the situation was not “critical.” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the strikes on Kyiv were in response to Ukraine’s recent attacks. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said that it was wrong to equate his country’s strikes in Russia with Moscow’s unrelenting bombardments. “It is immoral to justify Russian atrocities against Ukrainians by saying that Moscow acts in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia,” he said on social media. “In this war, there is an aggressor and a country defending itself under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. ” The Ukrainian military said it had targeted Russian energy infrastructure again on Thursday, claiming that it had struck an oil refinery in the town of Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod region, one of the largest in Russia. The European Union responded to Russia’s attacks by proposing to impose new economic sanctions against entities that support Moscow’s military defense industry. “Words of condemnation alone will not stop attacks on Kyiv,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, said on social media. “Only sustained military support for Ukraine and increased pressure on Moscow can do that.” Ukraine has been trying to force the Russian military to pay a heavy price for every mile of land it seizes and increase the economic costs for the Kremlin. Moscow believes its military can outlast Kyiv’s outnumbered forces on the front while inflicting such a heavy human and economic toll that it breaks the will of civilians, according to Western military analysts. Many of Kyiv’s three million residents had been bracing for a large-scale Russian assault in part because about two weeks had passed since the last one, giving Moscow time to stockpile missiles and drones. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had warned in recent days that Russia was preparing a “massive strike,” and he urged people to be “especially careful.” Before dawn on Thursday, explosions boomed and thick smoke rose over the Ukrainian capital. More than 50,000 people sought shelter in the city’s subway stations, according to the local authorities, and tens of thousands took cover in basements, garages or in makeshift shelters at home. Firefighters and emergency workers raced to extinguish blazes across the city. Several apartment buildings were partially destroyed and an unknown number of people were trapped in the rubble, according to the local authorities. Mr. Zelensky said more than 30 locations across Kyiv were hit or damaged, including residential buildings, an ambulance station, and a research institute. In an underground parking garage in the Darnytsia district of the city, dozens of residents waited out the night’s bombardment. Some slept in their cars, others on the concrete floor. “We could hear the explosions clearly — it wasn’t far away,” said Olena Rudenkova, a resident of the district. What has changed, she added, was not the fear but the response to it. “I don’t think anyone cries anymore, not even the children,” she said. “Everyone becomes as focused and angry as possible.” The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 74 missiles and 476 drones in the attack, primarily targeting Kyiv. The barrage included 28 ballistic missiles, which can only be intercepted by Patriot systems, it added. Ukraine’s stockpile of Patriot interceptors was running low even before the latest attacks. NATO countries have been regularly shipping modest numbers of the interceptor missiles to Kyiv, but the Ukrainian military has been unable to keep up with Russia’s frequent strikes or Moscow’s capacity to produce new missiles. © 2026 The New York Times Company

By: George Wright June 30, 2026 Right-wing extremists remain the greatest threat to German democracy and their number increased significantly to 58,700 last year, the country's domestic intelligence service says. That number is an increase of more than 8,000 on the previous year, the agency says in its annual report, adding that extreme left-wing violence is also on the rise and is an alarm-call for Germany's rule of law. German democracy was under "practically permanent attack" from both inside and outside, said Sinan Selen, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Intelligence activities against Germany originated primarily from Russia, China and Iran, it said. Of the right-wing extremists identified by the BfV, 5,600 were estimated to have a propensity for violence. The agency said the increase in the number of right-wing extremists was largely due to the growth of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, whose membership grew to 70,000 in 2025. The AfD is due to hold its party conference in the eastern city of Erfurt at the weekend and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt warned of potential violence during protests against the event. Protests must always remain non-violent, he said. The AfD came second in federal elections last year, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. The party is polling at about 40% ahead of elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in September. This could be enough for an overall majority, meaning the party could form its first state-level government. Far-right groups are increasingly focusing on influencing children and young people, and are recruiting new members at far-right music shows that also reached a record number last year, the BfV report said. The AfD was designated as a right-wing extremist group last year, but that classification was suspended in February after the party challenged the BfV's move in the courts and a ruling is still awaited. The German foreign ministry defended the decision at the time, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the move "tyranny in disguise" and Vice-President JD Vance said the Berlin Wall was being rebuilt. The domestic intelligence agency still lists the party as a "suspected extremist organisation" and in its latest report it says: "Given the rising membership figures, it can be assumed that the pool of individuals with extremist leanings within the AfD has also expanded accordingly." It noted "right-wing extremist and conspiracy-theory narratives - such as that of a 'population exchange' or the 'Great Replacement' - are frequently picked up" by the the AfD and other groups on the right. The report also identified around 26,000 far-right extremists from the "Reichsbürger" (Reich Citizens) and "Selbstverwalter" (self-administrator) groups. These groups "do not recognise the Federal Republic as a state; they reject our constitution, laws, and authorities, frequently propagating conspiracy ideologies and antisemitic narratives", the report stated. The report also noted that the number of individuals involved in left-wing extremism grew by 4,200 last year, reaching 42,200. Violence against suspected right-wing extremists and police officers increased significantly, it said. There was also a slight rise in the number of individuals involved in Islamism or "Islamist terrorism" to 28,645, the agency noted. © Copyright 2026 BBC.

Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and Nigeria The interior of a house in Attécoubé in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, damaged by floods and landslides. File Photo: Chris Boli/AFP/Getty Images Floods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan. There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added. The deaths are the latest in coastal west Africa, which is enduring relentless, deadly rains that authorities predict could intensify in the coming days. Footage emerged on social media of neighbourhoods submerged in water as residents waded through in search of drier areas. People wade across a flooded road as traffic is halted by torrential rains in Côte d’Ivoire on 25 June. File Photo: Legnan Koula/EPA In neighbouring Ghana, at least 13 people have died even as more than 400 others were rescued on Tuesday, the Ghana fire service said. The president, John Mahama, posted on X that the downpour had been approximately 140mm of rain”, significantly higher than the “highest single-day rainfall recorded last year [of] about 56mm”. Authorities say the floods have become deadlier as climate breakdown exacerbates the frequency and impact of extreme weather. Despite Africa contributing only minimally to greenhouse gas emissions, the World Meteorological Organisation has said the continent is especially vulnerable to extreme weather events. However, the impact of poor waste management and urban population growth on existing infrastructure has also been acknowledged as a factor. Residents gather among houses damaged by landslides and flooding in Attécoubé. File Photo: Chris Boli/AFP/Getty Images After an aerial tour of affected areas on Monday, Mahama explained that Accra was built between the Akwapim mountain range and the Atlantic Ocean, which was not a problem when it had been a small city. “As the population continues to increase and people continue to build, it restricts the path of the streams on the way to the Atlantic … there is also human behaviour [of] dumping garbage in the drains … Even in the air, we discovered many illicit dumping sites where wetlands are,” he added. In Accra and the nearby city of Tema, rains submerged buildings and roads, cutting off access. In some areas fires started after electrical installations were flooded. Floods also hit parts of Benin, Togo and Nigeria, with no confirmed casualties. In Lagos, Nigeria, where several islands are connected to a large mainland area, flooding halted operations at a transmission substation, disrupting electricity supply to several neighbourhoods. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted “above normal” rainfall in Abuja and nine states this year. Some of the states are in the north, which experienced what was described as the worst flood in 60 years last year. Between last December and February, southern and northern Africa were similarly affected by deadly floods.

A judge ruled that the execution of 12 men — of which seven survived — was a human rights violation committed by the Argentine state 70 years ago. June 23, 2026 Martina Jaureguy A San Martín court declared that the execution of 12 men committed in José León Suárez in 1956 and depicted in journalist Rodolfo Walsh’s non-fiction novel Operación Masacre was a crime against humanity at the hands of the Argentine state. The ruling by Judge Alicia Vence was read on Monday during a “truth trial” carried out 70 years after the massacre. While the process does not carry criminal convictions, it serves as a way to bring symbolic justice and reparation to the victims and their families. Of the 12 men who were shot by a police squad in the early hours of June 10, 1956, five died on the spot. Out of the seven survivors, only one lives to this day — 94-year-old Juan Carlos Livraga, who exiled to the United States shortly after the tragic event and was not present at the hearings due to poor health. Crimes against humanity Judge Vence ruled that the Argentine state was responsible for planning, carrying out and covering up not only the five killings and attempted murder of the remaining seven victims, but also an illegal search of the two homes where most of the victims were gathering at on the night of June 9, aggravated false imprisonment, and abuse of authority. Relatives holding photos of the victims and journalist Rodolfo Walsh. Source: Buenos Aires province government Although those behind the shooting are dead, Vence declared the responsibility of dictators Pedro Eugenio Aramburu and Isaac Rojas — two of the leaders of the 1955-1958 military dictatorship — as well as intelligence chief Juan C. Quaranta; head of the Buenos Aires Province Police Desiderio Fernández Suárez, who was in charge of the operation; and San Martín regional police chief Rodolfo Rodríguez Moreno, who led the killing squad. If the trial had been carried out while they were alive, they should have been sentenced to life in prison, Vence said, as the audience cheered in the court room. “The crimes that were investigated in this process can be considered crimes against humanity,” she stated, adding that the sentence itself was a form of reparation for the victims. Symbolic reparation The judge also ordered a series of measures to grant symbolic justice and keep alive the memory of the events. This includes “restoring the good name and honor” of the 12 victims, adding their names to the registry of victims of institutional violence, and publishing the sentence in government websites and official gazettes. In addition, the events proven to have happened in the trial will be included in school curricula across the country and the province, while commemorative plaques and a memory site will be installed where the crimes took place, particularly the José León Suárez landfill where the victims were executed. The trial consisted of four hearings held between last week and Monday, which included testimonies of relatives of the victims and historians, as well as the presentation of historic documents as evidence, and a written declaration from Livraga. These elements allowed the court to verify that the events described in the book were real and that several crimes were committed. “These crimes should have been tried many years earlier. It has been 70 years, it is abhorrent,” plaintiff lawyer Alberto Palacios told PAREStv local news channel after the final hearing. No national government officials agreed to take part in the trial as witnesses, and the prosecutor assigned at the start of the process, Paul Starc, refused to participate as he believed a trial to be “unnecessary,” a court source told the Herald. The case The events took place between the night of June 9 and the early hours of June 10, 1956, when a group of men were arrested during a house search in Florida, a neighborhood in Vicente López, under accusation of taking part in a Peronist uprising against the military de facto government. The 12 men were first taken to a police station and later to a landfill in José León Suárez, where they were shot despite the martial law having been declared an hour after they were initially arrested, and therefore inapplicable to them. Five died at the spot: Carlos Lizaso, Nicolás Carranza, Francisco Garibotti, Vicente Rodríguez and Mario Brión. The others — Juan Carlos Livraga, Julio Troxler, Reinaldo Benavidez, Rogelio Díaz, Horacio Di Chiano, Norberto Gavino and Miguel Ángel Giunta — survived thanks to either escaping or pretending to be dead. Renowned journalist Rodolfo Walsh would learn about the events months later and start an investigation that led to the publication of his most famous work, Operación Masacre. While survivor Livraga — who was left severely injured — filed a criminal complaint shortly after the shooting, the judiciary ordered the case be taken by a military tribunal and was never addressed again, until now. All Right Reserved. Buenos Aires Herald

By Grace Harris and Franzie Schatzl Israeli soldiers standing guard in an alleyway in Hebron, West Bank. Photograph: Mohammad Nazal/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images Sexual and gender-based violence is pervasive in conflict today. Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) includes crimes such as rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, sterilization, forced marriage, and other acts of a similar nature perpetrated against people in a conflict-related setting. Often, perpetrators are members of military forces, militias, or terrorist organizations. International law now recognizes CRSV, once thought of as an inevitable fact of war, as a distinct crime. As prior Genocide Watch reporting has found, perpetrators use rape and other forms of sexual violence as an act of genocide, notably in Sudan. Similarly, in Palestine, decades of subjugation have become intertwined with gender-based violence and a denial of bodily autonomy. The use of gender-based violence against Palestinians as a tool of demographic control and dehumanization is not a new tactic. As Palestinian feminist groups have asserted, settler colonial dynamics are heavily gendered and sexualized. Historically, Palestinian women have faced intimate partner violence, familial "honor" killings, a lack of legal protection, and a denial of agency in times of peace, aggravated during times of conflict. As recent reporting has found, Israel has systematically weaponized sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence, rising in frequency and severity, since the outbreak of Hamas attacks, war, and genocide in 2023. As independent investigations found, military leaders explicitly ordered these crimes or implicitly encouraged them. Sexual harassment, rape threats, assault, and forced stripping are all standard military operations. Sexual violence, which United Nations (UN) experts identify as a tool of occupation, intimidation, and displacement, is perpetuated in house raids, detention, and everyday interactions. Checkpoints operate not solely as restrictions on movement, but as mechanisms of bodily control. State and military systems have institutionalized gender-based violence (GBV) and violations of bodily autonomy as tools of terror in private and public spheres simultaneously, reinforcing uneven power dynamics and contributing to further dehumanization. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reports a “war against women” waged by the Israeli Defense Forces and settlers with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands in precarious conditions. Historically, GBV in genocidal contexts has served as a method of eradication – impacting people today and future generations with long term damages to reproduction. Women are more likely to experience violence as civilians than combatants. Likewise, the disproportionate targeting of Palestinian children directly undermines the future of Palestinian communities. The weaponization of sexual violence extends into the West Bank as well, used as a tool of settler colonial expansion. Both Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and Israeli settlers have been reported to use sexual assault and harassment to displace Palestinians and reshape community dynamics. Violent attacks, invasive body searches, lewd exposure, stalking, and forced stripping are just some of the many instances of violence. Furthermore, social stigma and humiliation cause ostracization and serve as driving factors for displacement. Within the Israeli prison system, widespread and lasting issues are clear. Testimonies from former prisoners share stories of systematic abuse, torture, starvation, and violent attacks. Many of their stories include cases of rape, sexual violence, and other forms of abuse with sexualized and gendered dynamics. Men and women alike face targeted gender-based violence with deep psychological impacts. Beyond this, the structural impacts of the devastation of civilian infrastructure in Gaza constitute another insidious form of gender-based violence. Humanitarian aid restrictions carry further gendered dynamics, as the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system and the loss of access to maternal, sexual, and reproductive care disproportionately affects women and girls. Israel’s latest restrictions issued on December 30, 2025, limited the operations of 37 humanitarian organizations. With only half of all hospitals operating after 930 attacks since October 2023, most of these only partiallyfunctional, Gaza’s fragile health system is already operating past its capacity and cannot fill the gaps left by aid organizations. This will leave tens of thousands of Palestinian women and girls without menstrual or maternal care, safe facilities to give birth in, or access to counseling services for sexual violence. This has led to an increase in maternal morbidity, stillbirths and miscarriages. Furthermore, targeting residential buildings results in high civilian casualties and the dissolution of community structures. The attack on a women’s rights center in Gaza City in November 2023, despite no evident military justification, illustrates this dynamic. The facility provided refuge for survivors of GBV, making its destruction particularly consequential as pre-existing patriarchal structures, interfamilial violence (including “honor” killings), and GBV have all been significantly exacerbated. Perpetrators accompanied the destruction with gendered and sexualized graffiti, signalizing intent beyond military objectives assault on the structures that sustain community resilience. At the psychological level, the impacts of GBV are profound and enduring. Shame can lead to silence and underreporting. Women’s bodies are tied to communal notions of honor, retaliation, and identity beyond the individual. Cases of forced stripping or removal of religious veils violate dignity and fracture identity, with individual traumas inseparable from collective retaliation. “Justice” for sexual violence against Israeli women on October 7, 2023, has arguably been mobilized within discourses of national masculinity and revenge as well. Bodies become symbolic battlegrounds, where violations are interpreted as affronts to collective honor. This dynamic perpetuates enduring cycles of violence where Palestinian bodies of all genders are subjected to acts intended to feminize, humiliate and collectively punish. Alarmingly, these patterns persist within a context of striking impunity, as investigations by the OHCHR found no meaningful effort by Israeli forces to prevent, prosecute or respond to the documented instances. The absence of accountability reinforces their function as tools for policy and control. Israeli law does not adequately protect Palestinians, leaving significant gaps in access to justice. Ultimately, bodily autonomy must be understood as the non-negotiable foundation of human rights. Its violation is not isolated, but intersects with restrictions on movement, healthcare, political agency, and social participation. Global hierarchies of race, gender, and class shape the normalization of these violations and determine whose pain institutions recognize. Centrally, sexual violence in conflict is not an inevitable byproduct of war, but a strategy that governments and institutions can prevent. Without accountability, recognition, and structural change, the erosion of bodily autonomy will remain central to ongoing violence. As identified in prior analysis, Genocide Watch recognizes Palestine to encompass all Ten Stages of Genocide. The gendered dynamics of violence indicate Stage 3: Discrimination and Stage 8: Persecution in particular. The systemic nature, scale and intent combined with reproductive and social consequences underscores broader processes of destruction. Genocide Watch recommends: The Government of Israel must uphold the October 2025 ceasefire, stop West Bank expansion, begin a process of transitional justice, and follow ICJ orders to prevent and mitigate genocide. The IDF, Ministry of Defense, Military Advocate General, and Attorney General's Office should immediately cease and prosecute all acts of GBV committed by military personnel or settlers at all levels of command, and in full cooperation with international accountability mechanisms. The UN Special Rapporteur and Independent International Commission should monitor and enforce compliance, paying particular attention to conditions of gender-based violence. The Government of Israel and relevant border authorities should facilitate rapid and unrestricted delivery of humanitarian assistance, ensuring access to essential medical, psychological, and material support and restoring healthcare infrastructure. International partners like UN Women should aid and promote the establishment of survivor-centered frameworks for documentation, justice, and community healing in accordance with Palestinian civil society organizations and the Palestinian Authority.